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A Catholic convent and college in Los Angeles might seem an unlikely breeding ground for Pop Art and social commentary. However, for nearly three decades, Sister Mary Corita—a Catholic nun, teacher, and inspiration to such luminaries as Buckminster Fuller and Charles Eames—devoted her life to creating cutting-edge serigraphs (silk screens). In 1946, a decade after joining the Order of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Sister Corita began teaching art at Immaculate Heart College. By 1952, she had exhibited her first silk screen print.

While her earliest art included frequent Biblical references, Sister Corita’s spirituality evolved during the 1960s into a wider concept defining anything “good” as religious. Inspired by media and advertising, she began her evocative use, reuse, and re-contextualization of everyday phrases and images to create art that addressed contemporary issues ranging from poverty, materialism, and environmental degradation to inequality, social injustice, and war. She combined common images and symbols—such as a grocery store logo, magazine cover, and bread wrapper—with text to redefine the original item’s purpose. For example, the loaf of bread becomes a sacrament and the supermarket’s emblem sounds the call for social responsibility and racial equality.

In 1966 and 1967, Sister Corita’s work evolved to reflect her love of words and growing interest in the artistic significance of lettering and design. Serigraphs produced during this period combine contemporary slogans and catch phrases with song lyrics, fragments of poetry, and philosophical passages to echo Sister Corita’s belief in living responsibly and with greater care. In response to the tumultuous events of 1968 and 1969, including the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr., the escalating war in Vietnam, and continuing racial tensions in the United States, Sister Corita produced a series of emotionally raw serigraphs that incorporated a new technique—photographic images as stencils—to express her distress and sorrow about events of the day while reminding viewers that virtuous acts are never in vain.

After leaving the Order in 1969, Sister Corita continued working with themes inspired by her experiences there. Sister Corita: The Joyous Revolutionary explores the artist’s work chronologically and thematically, from her early religious pieces and Abstract Expressionist-inspired works of the 1950s to the popular 1985 “Love” stamp created for the U.S. Postal Service.

Organized by the Corita Art Center (CAC) in Los Angeles and curated by CAC Director Alexandra Carrera, the exhibition features 44 serigraphs plus supporting images and interactives. Additional commentary will be provided by artist and curator Julie Ault, author of Come Alive: The Spirited Art of Sister Corita (Spring 2006).